Let Us Walk by the Spirit
Galatians 5:25
Human nature, with which all of us are born, will not enter into the kingdom of God unless it is changed.
This change is called being born again. And what this means is that the Spirit of God creates something new; he takes out of us the heart of stone that rebels against God, and he puts into us a new heart which trusts God and follows his ways.
Or to put it another way, the Holy Spirit establishes himself as the new ruling principle of our life.
When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our life, we are a new creation, the old is gone the new has come. 2 Cor 5;17
To some of you here this morning I will be speaking in tongues, you see, if you don’t have that personal relationship, you will not understand a word that I say this morning. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will be revealed to you during this message.
The new birth is not caused by our faith; on the contrary, our faith is caused by the new birth. "No one can come to the Son unless it is granted to him by the Father" (John 6:65).
Therefore, the life we have in Christ is owing wholly to the work of God’s Spirit, and we have no ground for boasting at all. We live by the Spirit.
"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In other words, that which is begotten by the Spirit has the nature of the Spirit, is permeated by the character of the Spirit, is animated by the Spirit.
Now what? Galatians 5:25 states concisely what our next step should be. "Since we live by the Spirit, let keep in step in the spirit."
Now Paul, in Galatians 5:25, draws an inference from how our new life in Christ began: if it began by the Spirit, then all our subsequent life ought to be carried out by the Spirit (see Galatians 3:1–5).
If it was by the free and sovereign power of the Spirit that our new spiritual life came into being, then the way that new life should be lived is by that same free and sovereign power.
"Walk by the Spirit" means do what you do each day by the Spirit; live your life in all its details from waking up in the morning until going to sleep at night by the enabling power of the Spirit.
But what does that mean, practically speaking? How do we "walk by the Spirit"?
Walking in the spirit to me is constantly engulfing my mind in the spirit.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. There are only two ways to walk: walking in the spirit or walking in the flesh: the choice is yours.
When I’m driving in the car, I’m walking in the spirit by listening to Christian radio.
As I drive over the Beaufort bridge at sunrise, I’m walking in the spirit by praising God for this glorious day and praising Him for His mighty presence in my life.
When Joy and I even begin to get the notion to quarrel about something, we are walking in the spirit when (at that instant) remember the promises of God. i.e., James 1:19-21. “My dear brothers, take note of this, everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak slow to become angry for mans anger does not bring into the righteous life God desires, therefore, get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent and humbly except the word planted in you”.
The more YOU do this, the easier it becomes………
The more you enable the power of the Holy Spirit to work in your life, the more you become Christ like.
The phrase "walk by the Spirit" occurs not only in verse 25 but also in verse 16, "So I say live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature."
So here we see what the opposite of walking by the Spirit is, namely, giving in to the desires of the sinful nature.
Remember, "flesh" is the old, ordinary human nature that does not relish the things of God and prefers to get satisfaction from independence, power, prestige, and worldly pleasures.
When we "walk by the Spirit," we are not controlled by those drives: the sinful nature produces one kind of desires, and the Spirit produces another kind, and they are in conflict to each other, and you do not do what you want.
You need to make the choice, the decision, the initiative, to empower God’s will in your life. This is just another reason that we need to place God’s word in our minds by memorization.
You can’t carry the bible with you all day at work, you can’t read the bible while you are driving, and you can’t study the bible while your sleeping.
But IF you ingrain God’s word in your mind by memorization, it will always be there….even while your sleeping…
even when your in a meeting with your secular boss...
and as we are walking, we always have God in our mind.
If you had to have your bible taken from you and you were stranded on a desert island……could you continue to read God’s word from your mind…and how long would you last…..or would you just be able to rely on the tank of gasoline in your mind? Are you running on empty? Or do you have a full tank?
Walking by the Spirit is what we do when the desires produced by the Spirit are stronger than the desires produced by the flesh, and we must continually soak our minds in His spirit to overwhelm the sinful nature.
The balance of the scales of righteousness will overflow through obedience in his word.
This means that "walking by the Spirit" is not something we do in order to get the Spirit’s help, but rather, just as the phrase implies, it is something we do by the enablement of the Spirit.
Consider it pure joy when you overcome gossip through the enablement of the spirit of God’s power in you.
Consider it pure joy when someone cuts you off in traffic and you rejoice in the presence of the Lord and thank Him for your safety and pray for the person whom cut you off.
God may have just spared your life?
Consider it pure joy.
Consider every situation, every event, every circumstance, every happening, every breath with pure joy.
And you will be complete. ……James 1:2-4. “Therefore, consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith developes perseverance and perseverance must complete it’s work for you to become mature and complete.
Ultimately, all the good inclinations or preferences or desires that we have are given by the Holy Spirit.
Apart from the Spirit we are mere flesh. And Paul said in Romans 7:18, "I know good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature, for I have a desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out."
Apart from the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, none of our inclinations or desires is holy or good
Sanctification creates a whole new array of desires and loves and yearnings and longings.
And when these desires are stronger than the opposing desires of the flesh, then we are "walking by the Spirit." For we always act according to our strongest desires.
Paul shifts from “Walking in the spirit to being led by the spirit in Gal 5:18. Being led by the spirit simply makes more explicit the initiative of the spirit in the life of a Christian.
The Holy Spirit produces in us desires for God’s way that are stronger than our fleshly desires, and thus he causes us to walk in God’s statutes.
We don’t lead him; he leads us. We are being led by him through the stronger desires he awakens within us. "Being led by the Spirit" stresses the Spirit’s initiative and enablement. "Walking by the Spirit" stresses our resulting behavior.
The Spirit leads us by creating desires to obey God, and we walk by fulfilling those desires in action.
How any human being would deliberately choose to risk his salvation on his own works rather then on the gracious mercy of Christ, Paul could not see. Can you?
When the Spirit is leading us by producing godly desires, then the commands of God are not a burden but a joy.
In view of what we have seen so far, I think the reason is that Paul wants to avoid giving any impression that what the Spirit produces is our work. It is not our work; it is his fruit.
The "fruit of the Spirit" is what appears in your life when you "walk by the Spirit."
Do you bear the fruit of the spirit today?
Do you have a deep love in your heart today?
Do you have an earnest joy for all things today?
Are you walking in the Spirit or sitting idle in content today?
Are you enabling the Holy Spirit to work in your life today?
You see the “fruit of the Spirit” is what appears in you life when you “walk by the Spirit”.
After being a Christian for several years, did you have patience with your boss this week?
Did you express kindness and goodness to all people you interacted with this week?
Were you walking in the Spirit or sitting idle in content this week?
Did you enable the Holy Spirit to work in your life this week?
You see the “fruit of the Spirit” is what appears in you life when you “walk by the Spirit”.
Is your faithfulness evident to all in proclaiming the gospel?
Do you possess self-control and not indulge in worldly behavior?
Do you walk in the Spirit? Do you enable the spirit in your actions?
You see the “fruit of the Spirit” is what appears in you life when you “walk by the Spirit”.
Ask yourself daily: did you crucify all things of the sinful nature with its passions and desires and fulfill in the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in you.
If not, we need to finally say….”It’s about time… and it’s not difficult”.
It’s about time to memorize scripture…and it’s not difficult.
It’s about time to come to church 3 hours a week…and it’s not difficult.
It’s about time to pray earnestly morning and night…and it’s not difficult.
It’s about time to bring your bible to church…and it’s not difficult.
It’s about time to proclaim victory in Jesus to all……and it’s not difficult.
Don’t you think it’s about time to bear the fruit of the spirit.. it’s not difficult because if you enable the holy spirit it’s not you that is doing the work..it is the Holy Spirit that works within you.
We have three images of the Spirit’s work in our life: "walking by the Spirit" in verse 16, "being led by the Spirit" in verse 18, and bearing "the fruit of the Spirit" in verse 22.
Those who bear the fruit of the Spirit know they are worthy only of condemnation.
Those who bear the fruit of the Spirit see that the issue is not the outward activities of life but the kind of heart that produces our outer life.
Those who bear the fruit of the Spirit know that a powerful battle has been fought and won in the deep territory of our soul.
And what better way is there to describe the ease of following our strongest desires than to say it is like having the Spirit’s fruit pop out in our attitudes and actions?
The last thing we want to notice in these verses about "walking by the Spirit" is that it refers basically to one kind of behavior: loving behavior.
1 John 3:10 says “This is how we know who the children of God are and the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God nor anyone who does not love his neighbor.
This shows that love is the all-encompassing lifestyle of one who bears the fruit of the Spirit, is led by the Spirit, and walks by the Spirit.
It is possible to undertake the most sacrificial acts imaginable for other people and still not please God. Give away all your goods and your own life, too, and come to nothing in God’s eyes.
It is possible to be eulogized by the world as the greatest philanthropist or the most devoted martyr and still not please God. Why?
Because what pleases God is walking by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit and bearing the fruit of the Spirit!
The great problem in contemporary Christian living is not learning the right things to do but how to do the right things. The problem is not to discover what love looks like but how to love by the Spirit.
For Paul it is absolutely crucial that, if we came to life by the free and sovereign work of the Spirit, we learn to walk by the free and sovereign work of the Spirit.
The evidence of your genuineness is revealed in your walk with the Lord.
Let me conclude by mentioning five things that I think we must do so that it can be truly said that we are walking by the Spirit.
First, we must acknowledge from our hearts that we are helpless to do good apart from the enablement of the Holy Spirit.
As Paul says in Romans 7:18, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing." What did Jesus mean when he said in John 15:5, "Without me you can do nothing"?
Of course we can do something without Jesus: we can sin! But that’s all we can do. So, the first step of walking by the Spirit is: admit this fact and let it have its devastating effect on our pride.
We cannot do anything pleasing to God without the constant enablement of the Spirit.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, if we do it is in the flesh
Second, since it is promised in Ezekiel 36:27 that God will put his Spirit within us and cause us to walk in his statutes, pray that he do it to you by his almighty power.
Many of you know the glorious, liberating experience of having an irresistible desire for sin overcome by a new and stronger desire for God and his way.
And as you look back, to whom do you attribute that new desire? Where did it come from? It came from the merciful Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us pray like Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 3:12 for that chief fruit of the Spirit:
"Now may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men." And let’s pray like the writer to the Hebrews did in Hebrews 13:21,
And now may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
We must pray the prayer of purity in our lives as Christians. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).
The third step involved in walking by the Spirit is faith. We must believe that since we have come under the gracious sway of God’s Spirit, "sin will no longer have dominion over us" (Romans 6:14).
This confidence is what Paul meant by "reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God" (Romans 6:11).
We simply count on it that the Spirit who made us alive when we were dead in sin--wills our holiness and has the power to achieve what he wills.
We believers can pray for with undoubting faith that God will do it as our sanctification, which is the same as being led by the Spirit.
The reason we can is that we know that God will cause his children to be led by the Spirit.
And the way we know this is because of Romans 8:14, where Paul says you can’t even be a child of God unless you are led by the Spirit. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."
If you are a child of God, you have a solid and unshakable promise that God will give you victory over those powerful desires of the flesh.
A Solid and unshakeable promise. Use that promise each moment of the day.
One word of caution: do not prejudge the timing of the Holy Spirit’s work. Why he liberates one person overnight but brings another to freedom through months of struggle is a mystery concealed for now from our eyes.
The fourth step in walking by the Spirit after you have acknowledged your helplessness without him,
prayed for his enablement,
and trusted in his deliverance……….. is to act the way you know is right.
Notice: this is not step number one. If this were step number one, all our actions would be works of the flesh, not fruit of the Spirit.
Only after we have appealed for the Spirit’s enablement and thrown ourselves confidently on his promise and power to work in us, do we now work with all our might.
Only when we act with that spiritual preparation, will we be able to say with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10,
By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
Or in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (see also Romans 15:18, 19).
A person who has acknowledged his helplessness,
prayed for God’s enablement to do right,
and yielded himself confidently to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit has this astonishing incentive to do righteousness,
namely, the confidence that, whatever righteous act he does, it is God almighty who is at work in him giving him the will and the power to do it.
It is a sign of hasty prejudice when a person says, "Well, if the Spirit is sovereign and I can’t do any good without his enablement, then I may as well just sit here and do nothing." How many times have we seen this?
There are two things wrong with that statement: it is self-contradictory, and it is unbiblical. It is a contradiction to say, "I’ll just sit here and do nothing."
If you choose to sit in your chair while the house burns down, you have chosen to do something, just as much as the person who chooses to get up and save himself and others.
Why should you think the one choice any more inconsistent with the sovereignty of God than the other? And such a statement is also unbiblical because Philippians 2:12 and 13 says,
Beloved, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling GOD IS SAYING (get out of the chair, the house is on fire!) because (not "in spite of" but "because")
For it is God that works in you to will and act according to his good purpose.
It is a great incentive, not discouragement, that all our effort to do what is right is the work of almighty God within us.
At least for myself, I am greatly encouraged when the going gets rough that any effort I make to do right is a sign of God’s grace at work in me. "Let him who serves serve in the strength which God supplies, that in everything God may get the glory" (1 Peter 4:11). To God be the glory!
The final step in walking by the Spirit is to thank God for any virtue attained or any good deed performed.
If without the Spirit we can do no right, then we must not only ask his enablement for it but also thank him whenever we do it. Just one example from 2 Corinthians 8:16.
Paul says, "Thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus."
Titus loved the Corinthians. Where did that come from? God put it in his heart. It was a fruit of the Spirit. So what does Paul do? He thanks God.
And Titus should, too. Thanks be to God who puts love in our hearts!
"If we live by the Spirit, then let us also walk by the Spirit."
Let us acknowledge from our heart that we are unable to please God without the Spirit’s constant enablement.
The difference between the Christian life and popular American morality is that Christians will not take one step unless the hand of Christ holds the hand that wields the sword of righteousness.
Let us pray for that enablement. Let us trust confidently in the Spirit’s power and promise to give that enablement.
Then let us do what we know is right…because it is about time… And having done it, let us turn and say with all the saints, "Not I, but the Spirit of Christ within me." Thanks be to God! To him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.
